Apropulsive Groove Laced with an Irresistible
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
a propulsive groove laced with an irresistible lad, ends up feeling as schematic and dutiful "as-oneness" of the duo is most evident). female chorus, and the sonic charmer "Girls as a snapshot. an exercise meant to pass the Hersch's laneology" is pointillistic bop 8c Boys," featuring gutsy baritone sax ejacu- time until Jackson's attention clicks to the (the model is Thelonious Monk's "Evi- lations complete with solo. Using a sharp next scene. Worse, instead of tossing off dence"). Bloom's "Waiting for Daylight" is snare roll as a springboard, a marvelously these songs like the sketches they are. Jack- a fairly conventional piece with a lovely, ex- stripped-down track featuring Sheila E. on son the singer bears down on them with the pectant melody that serves Hersch particu- drums, and an anxious vocal, "Girls & Boys" same inflexible petulance he has used larly well—his delicately woven strands nev- remains focused in both direction and pur- throughout his career, regardless of the sub- er become cloying. The duo seems inhibited pose: to keep the body up. At 5:30, though, ject. The tone of his voice often communi- by the responsibility of interpreting other it's too short. It has one of those endings that cates moral superiority: When he asks in people's songs. Wayne Shorter's "Miyako" says, "You want the rest, come see the "Right and Wrong," the best track here, and Alec Wilder's "Winter of My Discon- show!" "Right and wrong—do you know the differ- tent" are only pleasant. After the backlash his fans dealt him last ence?," the unavoidable message is that Despite the questions that such a pot- year when his overzealous bodyguards be- Jackson does, his audience doesn't, and he's pourri prompts, As One is a good album —for haved rudely after the American Musk here to tell them. This from a man who had those already intrigued by Bloom. Those Awards, and when he himself snubbed the trouble coming up with an answer to the (in- who are wondering what all the favorable "We Are the World" session. I thought finitely more profound) question. "Is She press is about would do well to seek out a Prince would have released more hard music Really Going Out with Him?" Mark Moses copy of Mighty Lights. Richard C. 11-alls like this to win back good favor. While I still admire his defiance of industry wisdom, he's SHADOW VIONI7TES: no longer a symbol of teenage lust and re- JAZZ Birth of a Pletiose. bellion. 'lb me, Prince will always be a bikini- Shadow Vignettes Productions, prod. Sessoms clad party-upper with adolescent desires: JANE IRA BLOOM AND FRED HERSCH: ‘:*1 0001. (Shadow Vignettes Productions, P.O. having a good time and getting laid. On Pa- As Ono. Bnx 6.12 Ch-coo , 111 60680 ! rade he approaches these feelings, but he's Jane Ira Bloom and Fred Hersch, prods. .IMT DENNIS GONZALEZ-JOHN PURCELL STET: no longer in touch with them. Ain't getting vi 850003. (Distributed by Polygram Special Im Little Toot. old a drag? Havelock Nelson ports.) • • r s Gonzalez, prod. Daagnim 13. (Distrib- JANE IRA BLOOM HAS RECENTLY EMERGED AS O uted by New Music Distribution Service, 500 JOE JACKSON: someone with a personal voice on the sopra- Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10012.) Big World. no sax, which makes her—along with Sam THE NEOCON MOVEMENT GIVES HOPE TO MUSI- David Kershenbaum and Joe Jackson, prods. Rivers. Anthony Braxton, and Steve Lacy— clans rediscovering a balance between indi- W A&M SP 6021. CI% one of the notable exceptions. Just manag- vidual expression and group interaction. JOE JACKSON'S AMBITION HAS ALWAYS BEEN ing to escape the influence of John Coltrane For as well as harnessing the buildup and re- more laudable than its fulfillment, from his and his disciples (and epigones) is an lease of musical tension, that balance is at early Naugahyde-punk pop to his more re- achievement. I983's Mighty Lights (on Enja), the heart of the fecund, democratic spirit cent serious-songwriter stylings. Like each where she and pianist Fred Hersch were and joyous swing ofjazz. Shadow Vignettes' release since the 1980 rhythm exploration joined by bassist Charlie Haden and drum- Birth of a Notion and the Dennis Gonzalez— Beat Crazy, his new album feels compelled to mer Ed Blackwell, was a revelation; buoyed John Purcell 8tet's Little Toot are excellent announce itself as a groundbreaking coup by such classy support. Bloom took oft, her examples of forward-looking yet traditional- that seriously puts the artiste's popularity at tone cool and full, her improvs thoughtful ly rooted records by what could be called risk. This year's shtick is a three-sided album and aggressively original. Hersch's tasteful modern-day territory bands. (no jokes about the silent fourth side being Bill Evans-influenced solos were the glaze Shadow Vignettes, composed largely of his most eloquent work ever, okay?) record- on the doughnut. AACM members, is led by Chicagoan Ed- ed live directly to two-track during a series of The latest album from Bloom and ward Wilkerson. who also plays with the Eth- performances earlier this year in New York. Hersch is a series of duets that display, as the nic Heritage Ensemble. True to the post— And like lots of Jackson's earlier ploys, Big title suggests, the empathy of long-standing Muhal Richard Abrams/Art Ensemble of World has its purely musical payoffs. The improvisational cohorts. But like many ef- Chicago style. Wilkerson's compositions for stripped-down band, reminiscent of the one forts by modernists working during a period this 24-piece band are eclectic, humorous, on his debut Look Sharp!, applies a lean mus- when no particular jazz style seems more ur- and imagistic. His writing and arrangements cularity to melodies that have the elegant gent than any other, As One is bound to strike layer squealing obbligatos, careering riffs, twists and turns Jackson has been perfecting some listeners as uneven. Not that every and instrumental voicings. Yet amidst the since Night and Day. Even as the tunes shift track isn't informed by the same high level of detail, his contrapuntal lines and spare funk from slightly funky rock ("Right and technique (if not inspiration). but someone vamps create a breezy, compelling sound. Wrong") to Arabic wail (the title track) to who finds the plunking. thumping, and And his concern for thematic development tango ("Tango Atlantico"), the crisp playing Doppler effects of the experimental collage allows for a great deal of free blowing that of the band makes them all of a piece. "inside" to be engrossing may be put off by never loses sight of the original point. Shad- Reinforcing its creator's will to fit togeth- the trite Jarrett-like pastels of Flersch's "A ow Vignettes also gives Wilkerson the op- er a global pop out of spare parts (and con- Child's Song" (and vice versa . though portunity to indulge his love of a good yarn sistent with the album's notes and lyrics you can see where my sympathies lie). by performing in the ten-minute video short printed in six languages), Big World makes Usually, an eclectic approach is better inte- of the Birth of a Notion track "Honky Tonk stops from the Falklands to China, taking in grated. Here, with the most commercial and Bud." (Hooky Tonk Bud is available on VHS American success ("Wild West") and shift- most avant-garde impulses herded into sep- and Beta videocassettes from Urban Legend ing Cold War alliances ("Forty Years"). But arate cuts, you may figure I hat at least one of Films, 646 W. Webster, Chicago, III. 60614.) though the distances Jackson travels may them has to be a goof. The story concerns the FBI sting of a signify outreach, he still thinks as superficial- The best work on As One falls somewhere small-time drug dealer. Over a two-note ly as a tourist, even (or especially) when he's between these two extremes. Bloom's "Des- bass line, John Toles-Bey recites the tried- singing about prototypically crude Ameri- ert" makes judicious use of space and disori- and-true bad man tale, which is a variation can tourists themselves in "The Jet Set." enting textures to evoke the isolation and on the legends of Stagolee or Killer Joe. The "Fifty Dollar Love Affair," a lament by a sail- alien landscape suggested by the song's title world may not need another deification of or on shore leave sung as a French cafe bal- (and here, where the structure is loose, the the black man as outlaw, but the composi- 74 HI G H FID E LI T Y.